Background advertising system

ABSTRACT

An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into an end user communication message a background reference to an advertisement. In some embodiments, the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, or watermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mail message or public posting. A message server inserts the background reference after receiving a message originally sent from an end user originator and before sending the message to be delivered to an end user recipient. When necessary, the message server will convert at least a portion of the message into a proper format, such as HTML, before inserting the background reference to an advertisement, which is preferably selected in accordance with end user recipient demographic information and/or ad exposure statistics. The advertisement itself, often a graphical file, is preferably not transmitted with the message, but is typically stored at the message server or other location remote from the end user recipient. Preferably, the message server maintains and refer to records on each end user recipient to allow for selective enablement of background reference insertion and overwriting based upon end user preferences. According to various “non-web” example embodiments, the message server transmits an SMTP, POP3 or NNTP message with an HTML portion for a respective HTML-compatible client. In other “web-based” example embodiments, the message server transmits the entire message in HTML to be used as a stand-alone web page or as a portion of a larger page employing frames or tables.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/088,149, filed Jun. 5, 1998, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of advertisingsystems, and more particularly to the field of Internet advertising.

The worldwide network of computers connected through the TransmissionControl Protocol/internet Protocol (TCP/IP) communications standard,commonly known as the Internet, has seen explosive growth during thelast several years. This growth has been fueled in part by theintroduction and widespread use of so-called “web” browsers, which allowfor simple graphical user interface (GUI) access to network servers,which support documents formatted as so-called web pages. The World WideWeb (WWW), or “web”, is a collection of servers on the Internet thatutilize a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is an applicationprotocol that provides users access to files (which can be in differentformats such as text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc.) using aStandard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), which is an informationmanagement standard for providing platform-independent andapplication-independent documents that retain formatting, indexing, andlinking information. SGML provides a grammar-like mechanism for users todefine the structure of their documents and the tags they will use todenote the structure in individual documents. The page descriptionlanguage known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is an application ofSGML. HTML provides basic document formatting of text and images andallows the developer to specify hyperlinks, or “links,” to other serversand files. Use of an HTML-compliant client, such as a web browser,involves specification of an address via a Uniform Resource Locator(URL). Upon such specification, the client makes a TCP/IP request to theserver identified in the URL and receives a “web page” (namely, adocument formatted according to HTML) in return.

Electronic mail (E-mail) is another important part of online activity.Conventional e-mail is the exchange of text messages and computer filesover a communications network, such as a local area network or theInternet, usually between computers or terminals. Routing of e-mail onthe Internet is typically accomplished through the use of a protocol forsending messages called the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP).Multipurpose Internet mail extensions (MIME) extend SMTP to permit data,such as video, sound, and binary files, to be transmitted by Internete-mail without having to be translated by the e-mail client into ASCIIformat. This is accomplished by the use of MIME types, which describethe contents of a document. A MIME-compliant client application sendinga file, such as one of various conventional e-mail programs, assigns aMIME type to the file. The receiving application, which must also beMIME-compliant, refers to a standardized list of documents that areorganized into MIME types and subtypes to interpret the content of thefile. MIME is part of HTTP, and both web browsers and HTTP servers useMIME to interpret e-mail files they send and receive. Post OfficeProtocol 3 (POP3) is a recent version of a standard protocol forreceiving e-mail. POP3 is a client-server protocol in which e-mail isreceived and held in a mailbox for a user by a network server.Periodically, the end user checks the mailbox on the network server anddownloads any e-mail. An alternative protocol is Interactive Mail AccessProtocol (IMAP), according to which a user views e-mail at the server asthough it was on the user's computer, and an e-mail message deletedlocally is still on the server. Thus, POP3 can be thought of as a“store-and-forward” service, while IMAP can be thought of as a remotefile server. Therefore, an e-mail message is typically sent with SMTP,and after a network server receives the e-mail message on the end userrecipient's behalf, the e-mail message is typically read by the end userusing POP3 or IMAP.

In addition to older basic e-mail systems, including basic ASCII e-mailclients using SMTP and POP3, some enhanced e-mail clients, such asEudora Pro Email v. 4.0, display HTML portions of messages according toHTML formatting contained in the e-mail message bodies. Also, web-basede-mail systems, such as are currently offered by Hotmail™ and Yahoo™,are accessible through web browsers. In those systems, e-mail messagesare formatted into web pages, or portions thereof, for formatted viewingcontrol through web browsers. Thus, plain text e-mail messages receivedby those web based e-mail systems are converted into web pages forviewing by web browsers.

Shared public message networks include Usenet Newsgroups, Internet RelayChat, Fidonet, RIME, ILINK, and a host of others. Public messagenetworks also include public message areas in proprietary onlinesystems. Most are normally set up according to separate general interestcategories (e.g., “conferences,” “forums,” or “newsgroups”), subjectswithin those categories (e.g., “subjects,” “topics,” or “threads”), andfinally individual messages or postings within each subject, typicallyarranged chronologically, as well as according to earlier messages towhich they respond. Also included in this category of public messagingare instant messaging programs, which allow users to communicatepublically with other users in real time. These conferences typicallyare carried by many online systems regionally, around the country, oreven around the world. Newsgroups also have an Internet protocol whichgoverns their transmission called network news transfer protocol (NNTP).As with e-mail clients, public messages are also accessible through webbrowsers, enhanced public messaging clients capable of displaying HTMLformatting, and basic ASCII clients.

The recent growth of information applications on international publicpacket-switched computer networks, such as the Internet, suggests thatpublic computer networks have the potential to establish a new kind ofopen marketplace for goods and services. As web pages, discussion forumsand e-mail communications are used more nationally and internationally,it is highly desired that manufacturers and merchants be able tonon-offensively advertise their goods and services to users during theirregular course of Internet activity. With only limited success, suchadvertising has been done through the use of images as well as texttransferred over the Internet. Advertisements transferred over theInternet often, but not always, make use of trademarks. A “trademark” isa word, design, color, sound, smell, etc., or any combination thereof,used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify their goods and/orservices and distinguish them from others. In general, advertisementsinclude most types of communications promoting goods and/or services oforganizations or individuals, as well as promoting the organizations orindividuals themselves. Entities with access to potential viewers ofadvertisements often charge a fee to other entities interested inadvertising themselves and/or their goods and/or services.

On the Internet, as in more traditional venues of advertising, such asbillboards, TV commercials, products, etc., most advertisements (ads)include promotional material intended to be used to interest consumerswith particular goods or services. Currently, one primary way toadvertise on the Internet is through ad banners, which often containstatic or animated images, with or without trademarks, and normallyadvantageously function as hyperlinks to advertisement owner web pages.Unfortunately, banner ads often disappear with scrolling by the user andtake up precious screen space. Furthermore, because of typically largegraphical content, banner advertisements are often slow in downloading.As a result, users often move down a web page or to another web page anddo not wait for advertisements to complete the downloading process iftext or other content is displayed before, or simultaneously with, theadvertisements, thereby clearly diminishing the impact of theadvertisements. If text or other content is displayed only after anadvertisement is completely downloaded, users may become very frustratedwith the owner of the advertisement if the wait time is prolonged.Interstitial displays, such as splash screens which appear in betweenweb page requests and before a web page is actually delivered, alsoprovide advertisement opportunities, but they are often extremely brief,thereby greatly lessening their effect.

Others have addressed the problem of getting advertisements to an enduser through the use of screensavers, such as a product commercializedby PointCast, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., as described in U.S. Pat. No.5,740,549 to Reilly, et al. Although the screensaver program approachdoes appear to be capable of communicating advertisements to some users,there are clearly disadvantages to displaying these advertisements in anarea outside of the normal user work area during times of inactivitywhen a user may typically not be looking at the display. In addition,the extra steps required to install and update such software can be toocomplicated or cumbersome for some users. Advertisers also have usedbroadcast e-mails and public postings to send advertisement messagesfrom themselves containing plain text, as well as HTML formatting formore effective display. In general, e-mail messages and public postingscontaining hyperlinks pointing to additional information are also known,such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,793. Unfortunately, users oftenimmediately delete unsolicited e-mail messages, as well as those sentfrom unknown senders.

Outside the Internet, top of mind awareness (TOMA) advertising acquaintsthe public with advertisers' brand-names, logos, trademarks, etc.,through selective infiltration and saturation in the market. The purposeof such advertising is not to compel immediate purchase, but to enhancepublic awareness of the availability of the product from a particularmanufacturer or merchant, so that when shoppers are at the retailmarkets to make purchases, they will recognize brands and immediatelyhave higher perceived values of those products in relation to likeproducts by other manufacturers or merchants. The key to a TOMA campaignis repetition since the more times that an individual is exposed to aparticular brand-name, logo, trademark, etc., the more likely thatindividual will buy a particular product when making a buying decisionin the future. Unfortunately, on the Internet, TOMA advertising israrely accomplished successfully since, as discussed above, mostconventional Internet advertising methods often result in very limitedexposure to users. This conclusion is evidenced by the attentionbrokerage system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,210, which actuallyteaches a method of compensating users for paying attention toadvertisements on the Internet.

There is, therefore, a need for an advertising system for addressingthese and other needs and problems.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An advertisement system and method are provided for inserting into anend user communication message a background reference to anadvertisement. In some preferred embodiments of the present invention,the background reference causes an advertisement image to be tiled, orwatermarked, across an end user screen behind the text of an e-mailmessage or public posting. A message server inserts the backgroundreference after receiving a message originally sent from an end useroriginator and before sending the message to be delivered to an end userrecipient. When necessary, the message server will convert at least aportion of the message into a proper format, such as HTML, beforeinserting the background reference to an advertisement, which ispreferably selected in accordance with end user recipient demographicinformation and/or ad exposure statistics. The advertisement itself,often a graphical file, is preferably not transmitted with the messagein some preferred embodiments of the invention, but is typically storedat the message server or other location remote from the end userrecipient. In some embodiments, the message server will also maintainand refer to records on each end user recipient to allow for selectiveenablement of background reference insertion and overwriting based uponend user preferences. According to various “non-web” exampleembodiments, the message server receives an SMTP or NNTP message andtransmits an SMTP, POP3 or NNTP message with an HTML portion for arespective HTML-compatible client. In other “web-based” embodiments, themessage server transmits the entire message in HTML to be used as astand-alone web page or as a portion of a larger page employing framesor tables.

Since the advertisement is placed in the background when viewed by auser, it is normally non-clickable, ie., not a hyperlink to another HTMLpage. While this novel system of advertising is unusual since a typicaluser may initially desire, as with conventional banner advertisement, toclick on the background image to go to another web page owned by theadvertiser for more information or for ordering a product, the user willoften be exposed to the tiled advertisement longer, and many timessubliminally, while reading the content of the message, and the user mayalso be initially surprised to see an advertisement in the background ofan e-mail message which may be from a known originator, thus increasingthe awareness and exposure. Background images may also be very small incomparison to banner advertisements, thus downloading relativelyquickly. While the scope of the present invention is also intended toinclude inserting a reference to any type of background image orgraphic, including non-advertisements, the method of inserting areference to an advertisement is considered particularly useful andbeneficial in view of the above unexpected advantages, among others. Inaddition, Internet service providers, web site owners, e-mail serviceproviders, newsgroup services and other end user communication providersare able to extract revenue for non-obtrusive advertising on 100% of theactive screen area while still providing a work area for users toperform desired functions. In addition, this display does notnecessarily affect current advertisement banners being displayed. Otherfeatures and advantages of various preferred embodiments of the presentinvention will become apparent to one with skill in the art uponexamination of the following drawings and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of thespecification illustrate several aspects of the present invention, andtogether with the description, serve to explain the principles of theinvention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating physical components of oneimplementation of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating one type of end user workstationin accordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating one type of network server inaccordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing general operation steps of the backgroundreference system of the present invention in accordance with onepreferred embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of one implementation of abackground reference insertion process of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of selected basic components of an example enduser e-mail communication message as sent by an end user originator, inaccordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of the end user e-mail communication messageof FIG. 6 converted completely into HTML for use in a web-based e-mailimplementation of one preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of the message of FIG. 7 with an insertedadvertising background reference.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a screen display of the message of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the general operation of anotherpreferred embodiment of the present invention in a non-web-based,SMTP/POP3 implementation of a background reference system accommodatingan e-mail message with an attachment.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of selected basic components of an exampleend user e-mail communication message that is not in MIME format andthat has an attachment, in accordance with the preferred embodiment ofFIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of an example message similar to that of FIG.11 converted into MIME format.

FIG. 13 is an illustration of an example message similar to that of FIG.12 converted into a multipart/alternative part MIME format with an HTMLpart including a background reference.

FIG. 14 is an object model diagram showing portions of oneimplementation of an advertising system in accordance with one preferredembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a configuration process of theadvertising system implementation portion represented by FIG. 14.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing selected e-mail processing steps of theadvertising system implementation portion represented by FIG. 14.

Reference will now be made in detail to the description of the inventionas illustrated in the drawings. While the invention will be described inconnection with these drawings, there is no intent to limit it to theembodiments disclosed therein. On the contrary, the intent is to coverall alternatives, modifications and equivalents included within thespirit and scope of the invention as defined herein and by the appendedclaims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Turning now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designatecorresponding parts throughout the drawings, FIG. 1 is a block diagramillustrating physical components 10 of one implementation of the presentinvention, which has flexibility, expandability, and platformindependence. While system configuration can take many forms inaccordance with scope of the present invention, the diagram of FIG. 1illustrates a plurality of end user workstations 11, 12, 13 and 14directly connected to networks 18 and 19, acceptable examples of whichinclude, among others, local area networks (LANs) and Intranets.Additional workstations 20, 22 are remotely located and in communicationwith the network 18 through a remote access network 24. Network servers26, 28, and 30, one or more of which are capable of functioning as amessage server to perform the background reference insertion methods inaccordance with the present invention, as discussed below, are shownconnected to each other through an Internet 32, with conventionalrouters and switches omitted for clarity, but understood by thosereasonably skilled in the art of the present invention. Such networkservers are configured to support one or more conventional communicationprotocols, including, but not limited to, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, NNTP, HTTP,etc. Of course, the elements of FIG. 1 are understood to berepresentative of multitudes of similarly connected components, andvarious types of conventional workstations are understood to beconnected to the Internet 32 through conventional schemes.

In one application of the physical components 10, one end userorganization owns and maintains the components directly connected tonetwork 18, and another end user organization owns and maintains thecomponents directly connected to network 19. In that application, thenetwork server 28 can be configured to insert background references intoend user communications originated and received by any of theworkstations 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, 22. For example, if an end user atworkstation 20 sends an e-mail message to an end user at workstation 12,such a message could be routed through network server 26, network server28 for background reference insertion, and then network server 30.Though not necessary, such routing could be prompted by the end user atworkstation 12 maintaining an e-mail mailbox on network server 28. Inanother of the many applications of the physical components 10 includedin the scope of the present invention, network server 26 is maintainedby an Online Service Provider (OSP) to provide OSP customers usingworkstations 20, 22 access to the Internet 32, including e-mailmailboxes and access to the web and public messaging. In one example useof such an application, e-mail messages or public postings originatedand/or received by an OSP customer would include background referencesinserted by network server 26, including those from and/or to othercustomers of the OSP and others outside the OSP, as configured by theOSP. As with the former application, OSP customers may also maintainmailboxes on network server 28. Clearly, these applications are merelyexamples, and other applications of the physical components 10 are alsocontemplated such that any network server is capable of functioning as amessage server to perform the background reference insertion method ofthe present invention, as discussed below, without regard to whethermailboxes or user accounts are maintained by the message server.

Refer now to FIG. 2, which is a block diagram illustrating one type ofend user workstation 11, in accordance with one preferred embodiment ofthe present invention. A local interface 38, such as a conventionalcomputer bus, is shown connected to a variety of components, including astorage unit 40, a processor 42, an input device interface 44 providingan interface to the local interface 38 for a conventional keyboard 46and mouse 48, a display 50 for displaying information for being viewedby a user, a modem/network interface 55 for providing connectivity toother computers and networks, and memory 95. One example, among others,of an acceptable storage device 40 is a conventional hard drive, whichis used for non-volatile storage of programs and other data which areloaded into memory 95 for operation of the workstation 11 and used byprocessor 42 to control operation of the workstation 11. Such programs(also referred to as applications, systems, software, etc.) typicallyinclude, among others, an operating system 96, a browser client 52, ane-mail client 53, and a public posting client 54. Examples of acceptableoperating systems 96 include, among others, Microsoft® Windows® andUnix. Examples of acceptable browser clients 52 include, among others,Microsoft® Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. One example, amongothers, of an acceptable e-mail client is Eudora Pro Email v4.0. Oneexample, among others, of an acceptable public posting client 54 isMicrosoft® Outlook Express, which also functions as an acceptable e-mailclient. Some web browser clients also function as non-web basednewsgroup and e-mail clients, thus also serving as enhanced readers ofNNTP and POP3 information. Of course, the scope of the present inventionis intended to include, but not be limited to, any client capable ofdisplaying end user information with a definable background from anytype of electronic feed, including but not limited to, web pages, e-mailmessages, public postings, etc.

Referring back to FIG. 1, one example implementation and application ofthe present invention includes the network server 28 functioning as amessage server for inserting advertisement background references intoend user messages. Refer now to FIG. 3, which shows a block diagramrepresentation of selected elements of one type of network server 28,which is shown including hardware elements similar to those of theexample workstation 11 shown in FIG. 2. For example, a local interface138, such as a conventional computer bus, is shown connected to avariety of components, including a storage unit 140, a processor 142, aninput device interface 144 providing an interface to the local interface138 for a conventional keyboard 146 and mouse 148, a display 150, amodem/network interface 160 for providing connectivity to othercomputers and networks, and memory 195. One example, among others, of anacceptable storage device 140 is a conventional hard drive, which isused for non-volatile storage of software programs and other data whichare loaded into memory 195 for operation of the network server 28 andused by processor 142 to control operation of the network server 28.However, the network server 28 executes software programs (also referredto as applications, systems, software, etc.) which are different fromthose of the workstations. For example, in accordance with oneimplementation, software executed by the network server 28 executes aweb server 152, e-mail server 153, public posting server 154, such as anewsgroup server, and background reference system 155. In otherimplementations, network server 28 executes background reference system155 in combination with one or more of the web server 152, publicposting server 154, e-mail server 153, or other end user message serversoftware. In addition, while one implementation of the present inventionincludes separate background reference system 155 which communicateswith one or more end user message server software programs, otherimplementations include integrated end user message software solutionswhich directly incorporate the functionality of the background referencesystem 155.

In addition, the background reference system 155 of the presentinvention can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or acombination thereof. In one preferred embodiment, the backgroundreference system 155 is implemented in software or firmware that isstored in a memory and that is executed by a suitable instructionexecution system. The background reference system 155, which comprisesan ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logicalfunctions, can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by orin connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, orother system that can fetch the instructions from the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions.Examples, among many others, of acceptable software implementationenvironments include Java, Javascript, C++, etc. In the context of thisdocument, a “computer-readable medium” can be any means that cancontain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for useby or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice. The computer readable medium can be, for example but not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. Morespecific examples (a nonexhaustive list) of the computer-readable mediumwould include the following: an electrical connection (electronic)having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette (magnetic), arandom access memory (RAM) (magnetic), a read-only memory (ROM)(magnetic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory) (magnetic), an optical fiber (optical), and a portable compactdisc read-only memory (CDROM) (optical). Note that the computer-readablemedium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which theprogram is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, viafor instance optical scanning of the paper or other medium, thencompiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitable manner ifnecessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

Refer also to FIG. 4, which is a flowchart showing general operationsteps 300 of the background reference system 155 of the presentinvention, in accordance with one preferred embodiment. The backgroundreference system 155 receives an end user communication message in step304, such as, for example, through an SMTP or NNTP gateway from theInternet 32 (FIG. 1), through a POP3 or IMAP mailbox, or through anyother communication connection method for intercepting or otherwiseaccessing an end user communication message sent toward at least one enduser recipient from an end user originator. The background referencesystem 155 determines if the received message is in a format, such asHTML as one example, that can accept a reference to a background, suchas an advertising image as one example. If the message is not in such aformat, such as plain text as one example, the message is converted intoan appropriate format to accept a background reference, as indicated instep 308. If the message is already in such a format, or after themessage is converted into such a format in step 308, an appropriatebackground reference is added to the message, such as through abackground reference insertion process 312, an example of oneimplementation of which is shown in FIG. 5 and discussed below.Subsequently, as indicated in step 314, the end user message is madeavailable for delivery to one or more end user recipients. In someembodiments and implementations of the present invention, this stepincludes sending and actually delivering the message to one more endusers in user dependent formats.

Refer now to FIG. 5, which shows the operation of one implementation ofthe background reference insertion process 312 of FIG. 4. Theimplementation of FIG. 5 is related to an advertisement system, but itshould be understood that the present invention includes insertingreferences to any type of background into end user messages. Inaddition, included in the scope of the present invention are practicallyall technologies through which a background, tiled or not tiled on anend user recipient's screen, is designated for an end user communicationmessage, including client-based solutions and future technologies foraccomplishing the described functions. Nonetheless, it should be clearthat while the scope of the present invention is also intended toinclude inserting a reference to any type of background image, graphic,etc., including non-advertisements, the method of inserting a referenceto an advertisement is considered particularly useful and beneficial, asdiscussed above.

According to the implementation of FIG. 5, it is first determined atstep 404 whether the message already includes a background reference.While some embodiments of the present invention include determining ifany type of background reference is specified, including a meredesignation of a color, other embodiments include checking only for adesignation of a separate image file as a background. In addition, someembodiments will include making this determination only for messagespreviously determined in step 306 to already be in a format that canaccept a background reference since such messages are more likely toalready include a background reference. If the message already includesa background reference, step 406 determines if an approval configurationspecifies whether the background reference can be overwritten with a newbackground reference. If the approval configuration indicates thatbackground references are not to be overwritten for a particularmessage, step 412 indicates that the background reference insertionprocess 312 terminates without overwriting the existing backgroundreference. An approval configuration file is maintained in oneembodiment of the present invention in order to enable end userrecipients to configure the background reference system 155 (FIG. 3) onwhether or not to overwrite existing background references in messagesreceived by them. In other embodiments, steps 404 and/or 406 areomitted, whereby there is automatic overwriting of all or no existingbackground references. Furthermore, the ordering of steps in the variousflowcharts of the present invention are not intended to limit the scopeof the present invention with respect to order of operation since otherembodiments include varying the orders of the steps. As one example, insome embodiments, steps 404, 406 and 412 are instead executed after amessage is received and before format determination is made in step 306.In still other embodiments, a general approval determination is includedbefore format determination in order to determine if a particular enduser recipient has approved any background reference insertions,regardless of whether any background references already exist.

In accordance with the implementation shown in FIG. 5, when thebackground reference system 155 determines that an existing backgroundreference may be overwritten in step 406, or if it is determined thatthere is no background reference specified in step 404, then furtherdeterminations are made as to which advertisement should be referencedby a new background reference to be inserted (or overwritten if alreadypresent) into the message. Based on a determination in step 408,advertisements may be selected by the background reference system 155based on available demographic information for a particular end userrecipient (step 414) and/or on advertiser and advertisement exposures(step 416). In a web-based “free” e-mail implementation, acquisition ofdemographic information is required before the e-mail account isprovided to a user. If demographic information is not available or isotherwise inconclusive for targeted advertisements, commitments toadvertisers may drive the selection from a pool of availableadvertisers. Of course, as advertisements are selected based ondemographic categories or exposure requirements, records are maintainedfor future selection and reporting purposes. There are many conventionaldemographic and advertisement pool processing systems currentlyavailable and understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of thepresent invention. Although only two types of advertisement selectioncriteria have been discussed, it should be understood that othercriteria can be used without departing from the spirit of the presentinvention. Of course, advertisements should be constructed in color anddesign to not interfere with end user recipients being able to read theforeground message text.

Once an appropriate advertisement has been selected in steps 414 or 416,a background reference to that advertisement is inserted into themessage at step 418. In one implementation of the present invention inHTML, a background tag, such as <body background=“AdvertisementFile”>,is inserted into an HTML portion of a message, where “AdvertisementFile”is the name of a stored advertisement file. The advertisement fileitself, often a graphical file, is preferably not transmitted with themessage in some preferred embodiments of the invention, but is typicallystored at the message server or other location remote from the end userrecipient. In web-based embodiments, the background file may beco-located, and in a similar storage directory or folder, with the webpage message or located remotely from the web page message. If thebackground file is co-located with the web page message in the samestorage directory or folder, the background reference need only includethe name of the background file. Otherwise, preamble directory names orfill URL addresses beginning with “http:/www”, etc., are necessary sincethe background file can be located anywhere on the Web in someembodiments.

In some web-based embodiments where messages are stored on a networkserver after viewing by an end user recipient, the background referenceinsertion steps of the present invention are repeated each time the enduser views the message to show the end user a different background eachtime the message is viewed. In addition, in other embodiments,regardless of whether those embodiments are web-based, the actualbackground file referenced by the background reference is changed sothat the end user recipient views a different background when themessage is viewed subsequently. In still other embodiments, the URL isnot an actual address of a known file, but a call to a separate serverprogram, or script, to supply an unknown particular file chosen by theserver program. Since the particular file supplied will automaticallyvary in some embodiments, end user recipients see different backgroundseach time the message is viewed. While apparently never having beenassociated with the insertion of background references into end usercommunication messages, some methods of calling a server program, orscript, for receiving an unknown particular file are conventional andwould be understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of thepresent invention, and are included within the scope of the presentinvention.

Some other embodiments include transmitting the advertisement file as anattachment along with the message for storage on an end user recipientworkstation Of course, configuration or knowledge of the end userrecipient downloading location would be necessary (e.g.,c:\downloadfolder\) in constructing the proper address in the backgroundreference of the downloaded advertisement, which would only need to bedownloaded once in embodiments tracking which advertisements aredownloaded to which end user recipients and selectively sending onlythose advertisements that have not previously been sent to particularend user recipients.

FIG. 6 shows an illustration of selected basic components of an exampleend user e-mail communication message as sent by an end user originator,in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the present invention.Additional conventional header information is not shown for purposes ofclarity, as is also often selectively the case with conventional e-mailclients. Referring also back to FIG. 4, if a message represented by theexample message of FIG. 6 is received in step 304 of FIG. 4, it would besubsequently determined in step 306 that the message is not in formatthat can accept a background reference since the message is in plaintext. Consequently, in step 308, the message would be converted into anappropriate format, such as HTML, an example of which is shown in FIG.7. If, instead, a message represented by FIG. 7 was initially receivedat step 304, i.e., one which includes an HTML portion, as an example, itwould already be in an appropriate format, and step 308 would not beexecuted. Subsequently, as discussed above with respect to backgroundreference insertion process 312, a background reference is inserted intothe message, an example of which is shown in FIG. 8. The examplebackground reference shown in FIG. 8 is <bodybackground=“http://www.exampledomain.com/tkhr_adjpg”>. As discussedabove, in some web-based embodiments storing advertisements in the samedirectory or folder as web page messages, the preamble can be omitted;thus, in the example shown in FIG. 8, the preamble“http://www.exampledomain.com/” could then be omitted.

FIG. 9 shows an illustration of a screen display of the example messageof FIG. 8, where a tiled background image of a diagonal “www.tkhr.com”is shown as an example. Again, this image is not “clickable” since it isin the background of the screen, but e-mail messages and other end usercommunications can be branded, or watermarked, with virtually anybackground image as shown. In one implementation of a web-based e-mailsystem, the entire browser viewing area is used for displaying themessage and background image, thus control buttons such as reply, replyall, forward, delete, close, download attachment, etc. are on anotherscreen and are accessible by a back button on a browser, as isconventionally available in other web-based e-mail systems. In anotherimplementation, the information shown in FIG. 9 is placed in a frame ortable to share the browser viewing area with one or more other framesand/or tables containing controls. In yet another implementation,control buttons and additional information is inserted into the messageitself. Of course, traditional banner advertisements may still bedisplayed in addition to the background.

Refer now to the FIG. 10, which is a flowchart showing general operationsteps 500 of another preferred embodiment of the present invention in anon-web based, SMTP/POP3 implementation of a background reference systemaccommodating an e-mail message with an attachment. This example isuseful for end user recipients with MIME-compatible and HTML-compliante-mail clients. In the example shown, after receiving a message in step504, it is determined if the message is in a conventional MIME format instep 506. In this preferred embodiment, this determination can beperformed by searching the message for the text “MIME-Version”, forexample, in a header field. Although this is the search criteria in thispreferred embodiment, it should be understood that the scope of thepresent invention includes any search criteria that may be used inidentifying whether a message is MIME formatted. If the message is notin a MIME format, it is checked for attachments included within the textof the message and converted into a MIME format in step 908. One suchtype of attachment is the conventional UUENCODED attachment, which isdelineated by keywords “begin” and “end”; hence, in this preferredembodiment, the message is checked for characteristic placement of thesekeywords. Once converted, the message will include a “MIME-Version”header field, and any attachment will be converted into a MIMEattachment portion. One example attachment conversion process includesconverting from UUENCODE to base64, which is well defined and documentedin Request for Comments (RFC) 2045, which is considered understood bythose skilled in the art of the present invention and which is hereinincorporated by reference. The converted attachments will be added asparts to the message, including the addition of separators as discussedin more detail in RFC 2045.

Next, a MIME multipart/alternative part with HTML is added in step 510.

The multipart/alternative designation offers an alternative version ofthe text of the message such that clients that support HTML can displayit, and clients that do not can show the other alternative, which isusually plain text. The HTML part is essentially an HTML version of thee-mail message, the conversion to which would be understood by thosereasonably skilled in the art of the present invention as similar tothat discussed above with respect to step 308 (FIG. 4). If the messagereceived in step 506 is already in a MIME format, it is determined instep 511 whether the message already contains an HTML part, such asthrough searching for an appropriately located string “text/html”. Ifnot, step 510 is executed as discussed previously. If so, as well asafter step 510 is executed in the other two circumstances discussedpreviously, a background reference insertion process is executed in step512, which is similar to the background reference insertion process 312shown in FIG. 5. As with the embodiment discussed in FIGS. 4 and 5, theordering of steps is changed in other embodiments, and previousdeterminations may affect subsequent determinations. For example, if itis known through steps 508 or 511 that the message does not contain anHTML part, steps 404, 406, and 412 need not be executed since it wouldalready be known that no background reference is specified.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of selected basic components of an exampleend user e-mail communication message that is not in MIME format andthat has an attachment, in accordance with the preferred embodiment ofFIG. 10. The attachment, “clouds.bmp”, is shown in a UUENCODED formatbetween, and including, the words “begin” and “end.” FIG. 12 is anillustration of an example message similar to that of FIG. 11 convertedinto MIME format with the attachment in base64 encoding. FIG. 13 is anillustration of an example message similar to that of FIG. 12 convertedinto a multipart/altemative part MIME format with an HTML part includinga background reference. The HTML part begins with <HTML> and ends with</HTML>, and the example background reference is shown as <bodybackground=“http://www.exampledomain.com/tkhr_ad.jpg>. In anHTML-compatible, MIME-compliant e-mail client, the “clouds.bmp”attachment would be downloaded to the end user recipient's workstation,and the e-mail message would be displayed with a tiled background of theimage file located at the referenced address. The “clouds.bmp” file isnot intended to be the background file in this preferred embodiment, butas discussed above, other embodiments include sending the backgroundfile along as an attachment to the message. Thus, if the “clouds.bmp”file were the intended background file, and if it were known that thedownload directory on the end user recipient workstation was“c:\download”, then the background reference would be similar to <bodybackground=“c:\download\clouds.jpg”>.

Refer now to FIG. 14, which is an object model diagram 600 showingportions of one implementation of an advertising system in accordancewith one preferred embodiment of the present invention. The methodemployed by the diagram 600, also known as a Rose model, is a unifiedmodeling language, (UML), a standardized way of representing objects andtheir relationships to each other. In the diagram 600, a hollow arrow“inherits” (a first object inherits from a second object if the firstobject takes on the properties and behavior of the second object, i.e.,the first object contains the properties and methods of the secondobject), a dotted line with an arrow is a dependency (using an objectinternally or during a function call as a parameter) and a straightsolid line is an “association” (using an object internally withoutexposing it). Boxes shown in the diagram are object classes, whichinclude member variables and methods. The letter “Z” merely signifiesthat the element is an object, i.e., standing for “the.”

Thus, a ZVendorSpecificEmailInterface 610 inherits from aZEMailInterfaceBase 612; a ZVendorSpecificDemographicInterface 614inherits from a ZDemographicInterfaceBase 616;ZVendorSpecificApprovalInterface 618 inherits from aZApprovalInterfaceBase 620; and a ZHTMLEMail 622 inherits from both aZEMailBase 624 and a string 626. A ZWatermarker 628 has a dependency onthe ZEMailInterfaceBase 612, the ZDemographicInterfaceBase 616, and theZApprovalInterfaceBase 620, as well as an association with theZHTMLEMail 622 and the ZEMailBase 624. The ZEMailInterfaceBase 612 alsohas dependencies on the ZHTMLEMail 622 and the ZEMailBase 624. TheZEMailBase 624 has dependencies on the string 626 and a ZAttachment 632,as well as associations with a list<String>630 and alist<ZAttachment>634, both of which are aggregates of a list<Type>636and themselves have dependencies on the string 626 and ZAttachment 632,respectively. The ZApprovalInterfaceBase 620 has a dependency on theZEMailBase 624. The list<Type>636 is a template class corresponding to astandard template library for dynamic compilation. A template class is aclass which, at compile time, takes parameters passed to it and replacesthose parameters internally. The ZEMailBase 624 contains Zattachment 632and string 626 to store its contents.

Member variables and methods for the objects of FIG. 14 include thefollowing, with colons “:” meaning “type” for members and “return type”for methods:

ZAttachment 632

MEMBERS

m_ulLength: Long=0

m_pBinaryData: void*=NULL

m_Name: String=″″

METHODS

ZAttachment ()

GetData (): void*

PutData (pData: void*=default, 1DataLength: long=default):

enumSuccessError

ZEMailBase 624

MEMBERS

m_RecipientList: list<String>

m_CarbonCopyList: list<String>

m_Date: Date

m_sSender: String

m_sSubject: String

m_sBody: String

m_AttachmentList: list<ZAttachment>

m_1ReferenceID: Long=0

m_sMailBoxName: String

METHODS

GetRecipientCount (): Long

GetRecipient (1Index: Long): String

GetCarbonCopyCount (): Long

GetCarbonCopy (1Index: Long): String

GetDate (): Date

GetSender (): String

GetSubject (): String

GetBody (): String

GetAttachmentCount (): Long

GetAttachment (): ZAttachment

GetReferenceID (): Long

GetMailBoxName (): String

ZHTMLEMail 622

METHODS

ZHTMLEMail (EMailBaseToCopy: ZEMailBase&)

Construct (EMailBaseToCopy: ZEMailBase&): enumSuccessError

AddBackground (sBackgroundReference: String): enumSuccessError

ZWatermarker 628

MEMBERS

m_pEMailInterfaceBase: ZEMailInterfaceBase*=NULL

m_pDemographicIInterface: ZDemographicInterface*=NULL

m_ pApprovalInterface: ZApprovalInterfaceBase*=NULL

METHODS

PutEmailInterface (pEMaiIInterface: ZEMailInterfaceBase*):enumSuccessError

PutDemographicInterface (pDemographicInterface:ZDemographicInterfaceBase*): enumSuccessError

PutApprovalInterface (pDemographicInterface:ZApprovalInterfaceBase*=default): enumSuccessError

ProcessEMail (1ReferenceID: Long): enumSuccessError

ConvertEMail (): enumSuccessError

ZEMailInterfaceBase 612

METHODS

Register (pWatermarker: ZWatermarker*): enumSuccessError

GetEMail (1ReferenceID: DataType): ZEMailBase

PutEMail (HTMLEMail: ZHTMLEMail&): enunSuccessError

ZDemographicInterfaceBase 616

METHOD

GetBackgroundReference (MailBoxName: String): String

ZApprovalInterfaceBase 620

METHOD

IsApproved (rEMailBase: const ZEMailBase&=default): BOOL

Each of the vendor specific objects, includingZVendorSpecificEmailInterface 610, ZVendorSpecificDemographicInterface614, and ZVendorSpecificApprovalInterface 618, are constructed tointerface with specific vendor systems. Thus, such objects may beinterchanged and used as necessary when working with different systems.Furthermore, the ZVendorSpecificEmailInterface 610 is replaced with aZVendorSpecificNewsgroupInterface for NNTP interfacing, as well as anyother type of end user messaging system needed.

Refer also to FIG. 15, which is a flowchart showing a configurationprocess 700 of the advertising system implementation portion representedby FIG. 14. When configuration process 700 software is compiled, adetermination is made regarding the operating system environment, suchas Windows or Unix. After that determination is made, the compiledsoftware runs according to the operating system distinctions shown, butthe determination is made only once. Thus, after it is determined thatUnix or Windows is the operating environment for a particularimplementation, all of the illustrated operating system determinations704, 718, 726, and 734 are already determined. After the process 700starts in step 702, a manual process, if Unix is the operating system,three daemons are manually started in steps 706, 708, and 710, includinga vendor specific email interface daemon, a vendor specific demographicinterface daemon, and a vendor specific approval interface daemon,respectively.

Subsequently, a watermarker container program is manually started instep 712. The watermarker container program then instantiates, createsan instance of, ZWatermarker 628 in step 714. Subsequently, in step 716,the watermarker container program creates an instance of theZEMailInterfaceBase 612, after which either a vendor specificEMailInterface DLL is loaded (step 720) or communication is establishedto a vendor specific EMailInterface daemon (step 722), depending on theoperating system in which the process 700 software is compiled, asdiscussed above. Then, in step 724, the watermarker container programcreates an instance of the ZApprovalInterfaceBase 620, after whicheither a vendor specific ApprovalInterface DLL is loaded (step 728) orcommunication is established to a vendor specific ApprovalInterfacedaemon (step 730), depending on the operating system in which theprocess 700 software is compiled, as discussed above. In step 732, thewatermarker container program creates an instance of theZDemographicInterfaceBase 616, after which either a vendor specificDemographicInterface DLL is loaded (step 736) or communication isestablished to a vendor specific DemographicInterface daemon (step 738),depending on the operating system in which the process 700 software iscompiled, as discussed above.

The watermarker container program then passes the ZApprovalInterfaceBase620 to the ZWatermarker 628 in step 740, which calls thePutApprovalInterface method in the ZWatermarker 628. The watermarkercontainer program passes the ZEMailInterfaceBase 612 to the ZWatermarker628 in step 742, which calls the PutEMailInterface method in theZWatermarker 628, which then prompts the ZWatermarker 628, in step 744,to call ZEMailInterfaceBase::Register to enable the ZEMailInterfaceBase612 to trigger work. In step 746, the watermarker container programpasses the ZDemographicInterfaceBase 616 to the ZWatermarker 628, whichcalls the PutDemographicInterface method in the ZWatermarker 628.Although the watermarker container program is then finishedinitializing, the process 700 waits in step 748 for theZEMailInterfaceBase 612 to trigger work in response to receiving ane-mail message as discussed below.

Refer also to FIG. 16, which is a flowchart showing selected e-mailprocessing steps 800 of the advertising system implementation portionrepresented by FIG. 14. After an e-mail message is received in step 802,through the ZVendorSpecificEmailInterface 610, the ZEMailInterfaceBase612 calls, in step 804, the ZWatermarker::ProcessEmail method in theZWatermarker 628 with an EMail reference ID (identification number).Step 802 may include being notified by an external brand-specific e-mailserver program through the ZVendorSpecificEmailInterface 610 that a newe-mail message is in a particular mailbox. In other embodiments, theZVendorSpecificEmailInterface 610 polls the external e-mail serverprogram to determine when a new e-mail message is available. When theZWatermarker 628 is available in step 806, it retrieves the emailmessage from the ZEMailInterfaceBase 612 as a ZEMailBase 624 objectusing the previously supplied reference ID. The ZEMailBase 624 is a datacontainer that parses the received e-mail message so that theZWatermarker 628 can operate on e-mail messages regardless of format.Subsequently, in step 808, the ZWatermarker 628 passes the ZEMailBase624 object to the ZApprovalInterfaceBase:IsApproved method of theZApprovalInterfaceBase 620, which examines the ZEMailBase 624 object todetermine if further processing is necessary, as determined by aseparate approval system with which the ZVendorSpecificApprovalInterface618 interfaces. As discussed above, this separate approval systemfunctions in accordance with an approval configuration for each end userrecipient which, in some embodiments, determines if an existingbackground reference exists and if it is to be overwritten. In otherembodiments, certain users may be configured to have all backgroundreferences overwritten, and in other embodiments, the insertion ofbackground references is approved based on other demographic or messagecontent factors. As determined in decision step 810, if theZApprovalInterfaceBase:IsApproved method returns false, the process 800essentially terminates and waits for another incoming e-mail message instep 812. Otherwise, processing continues in step 814.

In step 814, the ZWatermarker 628 retrieves the MailBoxName from theZEMailBase 624 object. Subsequently, in step 816, the ZWatermarker 628begins the process of obtaining an appropriate background reference bycalling the ZDemographicInterfaceBase::GetBackgroundReference method ofthe ZDemographicInterfaceBase 616 and supplying the MailBoxName. Then,in step 818, separate demographic software, to which an interface isprovided through ZVendorSpecificDemographicInterface 614, determines theappropriate background reference for the supplied MailBoxName. In step820, the ZWatermarker 628 converts the ZEMailBase 624 object to aZHTMLEMail 622 object with a provided copy constructor. Since theZHTMLEMail 622 inherits from the ZEMailBase 624, the ZHTMLEMail 622 hasaccess to all of the data and structure of the ZHTMLEMail 622 object formaking an HTML copy. As discussed above, conversion to HTML includes acomplete conversion for web-based applications, and conversion of aportion of the e-mail message for non-web-based applications. Inaddition, attachments are also handled at this point as discussed above,as well as the creation of control buttons for general control and fordownloading any attachments through server scripting in web-basedapplications. Then, in step 822, the ZWatermarker 628 calls theZHTMLEMail::AddBackground method of the ZHTMLEMail 622 with theappropriate background reference, which is inserted into the HTML of theZHTMLEMail 622 object. In step 824, the ZWatermarker 628 returns thenewly formatted ZHTMLEMail to the ZEMailInterfaceBase by calling thePutEmail method, which includes placing the ZHTMLEMail 622 object in anappropriate place for making the message available for delivery to anend user recipient. Subsequently, the process 800 waits for the nexte-mail message in step 812.

In other embodiments of the present invention, the RecipientList andCarbonCopyList variables of the ZEMailBase 624 object for each e-mailmessage are used to generate associational demographic information. Inother words, marketing conclusions can be drawn about other primaryrecipients and carbon copy recipients based on demographic informationof one intended end user recipient. Thus, this information is useful andeasily tracked and reported in accordance with the present invention.

In concluding the detailed description, it should be noted that it willbe obvious to those skilled in the art that many variations andmodifications can be made to the preferred embodiment withoutsubstantially departing from the principles of the present invention.All such variations and modifications are intended to be included hereinwithin the scope of the present invention, as set forth in the followingclaims.

We claim:
 1. An advertising method for inserting a background referenceto a stored advertisement into an end user communication message in acommunications network, said method comprising the steps of: receivingan end user communication message at a first site on a communicationsnetwork; inserting into said end user communication message a backgroundreference to a stored advertisement, wherein said inserting stepincludes: determining whether said end user communication message is ina format capable of operatively accepting said background reference, andconverting said end user communication message into a format capable ofoperatively accepting said background reference responsive todetermining that said message is not in a format capable of operativelyaccepting said background reference; and transmitting said end usercommunication message with said background reference to a second site onthe communications network.
 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereinsaid background reference is operative for enabling background tiling ofsaid advertisement at said second site.
 3. The method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said end user communication message includes anInternet e-mail message.
 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, whereinsaid end user communication message includes a public posting.
 5. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of transformingsaid end user communication message into hypertext markup language(HTML), and wherein said transmitting step includes transmitting saidend user communication message in a web-based e-mail system to a webbrowser at said second site.
 6. The method as claimed in claim 1,wherein said transmitting step includes transmitting said end usercommunication message in a post office protocol (POP) format.
 7. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inserting step includesselecting the stored advertisement based on user demographicinformation.
 8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said insertingstep includes selecting the stored advertisement based on advertisementexposure for a pool of advertisers.
 9. The method as claimed in claim 1,wherein said inserting step includes inserting a hypertext markuplanguage (HTML) background reference tag into the end user communicationmessage.
 10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said storedadvertisement is stored at the first site.
 11. The method as claimed inclaim 1, wherein said stored advertisement is stored at a site remotefrom said second site, wherein said background reference includes a fileaddress remote from said second site.
 12. The method as claimed in claim1, wherein said stored advertisement is a graphical image file.
 13. Themethod as claimed in claim 1, wherein said determining step includes astep of determining whether said end user communication message is inmultipurpose Internet mail extensions (MIME) format.
 14. The method asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said converting step includes a step ofconverting said end user communication message into multipurposeInternet mail extensions (MIME) format.
 15. The method as claimed inclaim 14, further comprising a step of adding an SGML part to said enduser communication message converted into MIME format.
 16. The method asclaimed in claim 15, wherein said SGML part includes hypertext markuplanguage (HTML).
 17. The method as claimed in claim 1, furthercomprising the steps of identifying and recording all intendedrecipients of the end user communication message and formingassociational demographic relationships.
 18. An advertising method forinserting a background reference to a stored advertisement into an enduser communication message in a communications network, said methodcomprising the steps of: receiving an end user communication message ata first site on a communications network; first determining whether saidend user communication message in said receiving step is in a formatcapable of operatively accepting a background reference; seconddetermining whether said end user communication message contains astandard generalized markup language (SGML) part responsive todetermining that said end user communication message is in a formatcapable of operatively accepting a background reference in said firstdetermining step; adding an SGML part to said end user communicationmessage responsive to determining that said end user communicationmessage does not contain an SGML part; inserting into said end usercommunication message a background reference to a stored advertisement;and transmitting said end user communication message with saidbackground reference to a second site on the communications network. 19.The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein said SGML part includeshypertext markup language (HTML).
 20. The method as claimed in claim 18,further comprising the steps of: third determining whether said end usercommunication message already contains a background reference responsiveto determining that said end user communication message is in a formatcapable of operatively accepting a background reference in said seconddetermining step; and inserting a background reference responsive todetermining that said end user communication message does not contain abackground reference in said third determining step.
 21. The method asclaimed in claim 20, further comprising the steps of: fourth determiningwhether a configuration enables an existing background reference to beoverwritten responsive to determining in said third determining stepthat said end user communication message already contains a backgroundreference; and overwriting a background reference responsive todetermining in said fourth determining step that the configurationenables the existing background reference to be overwritten.
 22. Anadvertising system for placing an advertisement pointer in a backgroundof an end user communication message, said advertising systemcomprising: means for receiving an end user communication message; meansfor determining whether the end user communication message is in aformat capable of operatively accepting an advertisement pointer: meansfor converting the end user communication message into a format capableof operatively accepting an advertisement pointer responsive todetermining that the end user communication message is not in a formatcapable of operatively accepting an advertisement pointer: means forplacing an advertisement pointer in a background of the end usercommunication message; and means for transmitting the end usercommunication message with said advertisement pointer.
 23. The system asclaimed in claim 22, wherein said advertisement pointer includes meansfor enabling background tiling of said advertisement.
 24. The system asclaimed in claim 22, wherein the end user communication message includesan Internet e-mail message.
 25. The system as claimed in claim 22,wherein the end user communication message includes a public posting.26. The system as claimed in claim 22, further comprising means fortransforming the end user communication message into hypertext markuplanguage (HTML), and wherein said transmitting means includes means fortransmitting the end user communication message in a web-based e-mailsystem to a web browser.
 27. The system as claimed in claim 22, whereinsaid transmitting means includes means for transmitting the end usercommunication message in a post office protocol (POP) format.
 28. Thesystem as claimed in claim 22, wherein said placing means includes meansfor selecting a stored advertisement based on user demographicinformation.
 29. The system as claimed in claim 22, wherein said placingmeans includes means for selecting a stored advertisement based onadvertisement exposure for a pool of advertisers.
 30. The system asclaimed in claim 22, wherein said placing means includes means forinserting a hypertext markup language (HTML) background reference taginto the end user communication message.
 31. The system as claimed inclaim 22, wherein said advertisement pointer includes an address of astored advertisement graphic file.
 32. The system as claimed in claim31, wherein said address is a remote address.
 33. The system as claimedin claim 22, wherein said converting means further includes: means forconverting the end user communication message into a multipurposeInternet mail extensions (MIME) format; and means for adding a standardgeneralized markup language (SGML) part into the end user communicationmessage.
 34. The system as claimed in claim 35, wherein said SGML partincludes hypertext markup language (HTML).
 35. An advertising system forplacing an advertisement pointer in a background of an end usercommunication message, said advertising system comprising: means forreceiving an end user communication message; first means for determiningwhether the end user communication message is in a format capable ofoperatively accepting an advertisement pointer; second means fordetermining whether the end user communication message already containsan advertisement pointer responsive to determining that the end usercommunication message is in a format capable of operatively accepting anadvertisement pointer; means for placing an advertisement pointer in abackground of the end user communication message, wherein said means forplacing the advertisement pointer in the background of the end usercommunication message includes means for placing the advertisementpointer in the background of the end user communication messageresponsive to determining both that the end user communication messageis in a format for operatively accepting an advertisement pointer andthat the end user communication message does not contain anadvertisement pointer; and means for transmitting the end usercommunication message with said advertisement pointer.
 36. The system asclaimed in claim 35, further comprising: third means for determiningwhether a configuration enables an existing advertisement pointer to beoverwritten responsive to determining both that the end usercommunication message is in a format capable of operatively accepting anadvertisement pointer and that the end user communication messagealready contains an advertisement pointer; and means for inserting anadvertisement pointer responsive to determining that the configurationenables the existing advertisement pointer to be overwritten.
 37. Acomputer program embodied on a computer-readable medium for inserting abackground reference to a stored advertisement into an end usercommunication message, said computer program comprising: logicconfigured to receive an end user communication message from a firstsite; logic configured to insert a background reference to a storedadvertisement into said end user communication message, wherein saidlogic configured to insert the background reference is furtherconfigured to insert said background reference responsive to said enduser communication message not already including a background reference;and logic configured to transmit said end user communication messagewith the background reference to a second site.
 38. The computer programas claimed in claim 37, wherein said background reference is operativefor enabling background tiling of said advertisement at said secondsite.
 39. The computer program as claimed in claim 37, wherein the enduser communication message includes an Internet e-mail message.
 40. Thecomputer program as claimed in claim 37, wherein the end usercommunication message includes a public posting.
 41. The computerprogram as claimed in claim 37, further comprising logic configured totransform the end user communication message into hypertext markuplanguage (HTML), and wherein said logic configured to transmit said enduser communication message is further configured to transmit said enduser communication message in a web-based e-mail system to a webbrowser.
 42. The computer program as claimed in claim 37, wherein saidlogic configured to transmit said end user communication message isfurther configured to transmit sad end user communication message in apost office protocol (POP) format.
 43. The computer program as claimedin claim 37, further comprising logic configured to select saidbackground reference based on demographic information.
 44. The computerprogram as claimed in claim 37, further comprising logic configured toselect said background reference based on a pool of advertisers.
 45. Acomputer program embodied on a computer-readable medium for inserting abackground reference to a stored advertisement into an end usercommunication message, said computer program comprising: logicconfigured to receive an end user communication message from a firstsite; logic configured to insert a background reference to a storedadvertisement into said end user communication message, wherein saidlogic configured to insert the background reference is furtherconfigured to insert said background reference responsive to anoverwrite authorization; and logic configured to transmit said end usercommunication message with the background reference to a second site.46. A computer program embodied on a computer-readable medium forinserting a background reference to a stored advertisement into an enduser communication message, said computer program comprising: logicconfigured to receive an end user communication message from a firstsite; logic configured to insert a background reference to a storedadvertisement into said end user communication message; logic configuredto determine whether said end user communication message is in a formatcapable of operatively accepting said background reference; logicconfigured to convert said end user communication message into a formatcapable of operatively accepting said background reference responsive todetermining that said end user communication message is not in a formatcapable of operatively accepting said background reference; and logicconfigured to transmit said end user communication message with thebackground reference to a second site.